Foods Focus: Mediterranean Italian Omelette

Here’s a new recipe for the week; something fresh to start your day. Enjoy!:


Frittata con zucchini e tonno (Italian omelette with zucchini and tuna)
(for 4)
6 eggs
Salt, pepper to taste
2 zucchini, cut into small cubes
2 scallions diced
1 small can tuna packed in water
4 tblsps freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese
Fresh parsley (some finely chopped, some for decoration)
2 tblsps olove oil
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Drain tuna in separate bowl. Cut zucchini into small cubes. Chop scallions finely. Chop 1 tblsps fresh parsley. Heat 1 tblsp olive oil in pan, sauté zucchini, scallions for 3-5 minutes or until just golden. Cool for a few minutes. Fold into eggs, then fold in chopped parsley , flaked tuna and 3 tblsps. grated parmigiano.
Pour mixture into oiled 8” x 4” baking dish. Bake 15 minutes or until eggs are set. Sprinkle 1 tblsp parmigiano on top, and put bake in oven under broil for 1 minute.
Cut into slices or squares and serve with flaked parmigiano on top and fresh parsley.

Diets Part 2

Yesterday we got into some of the fad diets that are out there. We’re going to get into the main points and reasoning of these diets and compare them with the lifestyle of the Mediterranean Diet.

Atkins Diet: avoids carbohydrates if possible and classifies itself as a low-carbohydrate diet in order to avoid an increase of stored body fat. There has been some controversy that surrounded the Atkins Diet in the fact that high protein and low carbohydrate diets put people at risk of heart disease and that too much protein in the diet can affect your kidneys therefore increasing any preexisting health problems.

Cabbage Soup Diet: Taken from the website itself, http://www.cabbage-soup-diet.com/, it basically tells you the pros and cons of this diet. When you check this website out the first thing you notice is they claim that you will lose up to ten pounds in one week. This obviously cannot be healthy. The cons state that your body will probably be weak and there may be dizziness but to keep in mind that the diet is only for one week. These diets do not work; you may stick to this kind of diet for a week then is confused with how to maintain a healthy eating lifestyle after the one week is up. A lot of individuals tend to gain back the quick weight they have lost.

Grapefruit Diet: This diet originally lasts 18 days total and requires eating a lot of grapefruit; the diet used to be called the Hollywood diet. Currently according to this website, http://www.grapefruit-diet-plan.org/, you are able to lose 10 pounds in just 12 days. If you plan on continuing the diet after the 12 days are up you must take off two days before starting the whole process again. The cons show that the calorie intake from this diet probably is not enough for your daily nutrition and that the diet doesn’t mean its going to necessarily help with ones weight loss since it’s a temporary diet.

You’ve now seen a sample of what these three diets have to offer. With all three of these diets listed above there is controversy when it comes to ones health. Yes you may lose some weight which will probably be temporary and while doing so you are probably damaging your body. You will probably more than likely gain the weight that you temporarily lost and be like every other individual that starts searching again for a new diet to try: a new diet that probably will fail you once again. This is where the Mediterranean Diet comes into play. We know that the Mediterranean Diet promotes good food, good health, and that its doable. You are able to eat your favorite foods and still maintain a healthy lifestyle. If you have forgotten about the food groups check out this picture of the Mediterranean food pyramid here: http://www.thefinalsprint.com/images/2007/05/mediterranean-diet-food-pyramid.jpg.

Diets Part 1

This week we’re going to take a look at some of the fad diets out there. There are thousands of diets out there and they all claim to work. You see those infomercials on television and you wonder, that could be you losing all the weight in just 5 days (for example). These things do not work, I’m going to list some of these diets but look out for Diets Part 2 at the end of the week where I will get into more detail on some of these diets and why they in fact do not work. I will show you that sticking to a ‘healthy lifestyle’ is the better thing to do which has shown its results in many individuals. The Mediterranean lifestyle beats any of these fad diets any day.

Here are some diets you may or may not have heard of which it would be in your best interest to avoid if you’re going the healthy route such as the Mediterranean Diet. Check out this website for an alphabetical list of some of the diets out there, http://www.dietriot.com/diet-list.asp:

1 Day Diet
2 Day Slim Down
3 or 4 Day Diet
5 Day Miracle Diet
6 Week Body Makeover
7 Day Diet
7 Step Diet

Adkins Diet (Atkins Diet)

Anorex
Apple Cider Vinegar Diet
Bio Trim
Cabbage Soup Diet
Eat Yourself Thin
Egg Diet
Fat Flush Plan

Grapefruit Diet
Hollywood 48 Hour Miracle Diet
Hunza Miracle
Hydroxycut
Ice Cream Diet
Inches-a-Weigh
Infinity 2
Inhalers
Isagenix

These diet do not necessarily mean that they do not work or show results but it may not be a healthy way of losing the weight also when it comes to these kinds of diets a lot of people complain about not able to enjoy what they are doing to lose the weight or complain about the foods that they have to consume. From what we already know about the Mediterranean lifestyle the foods are great, the lifestyle is manageable and convenient and it simply gives healthy results. We will get into this later on during the week and go into detail on some of these diets that you may be tempted on trying. We will give the reasons why you probably shouldn’t.

The Benefits of Coffee

The Mediterranean Diet celebrates and displays a guideline with a high intake of antioxidants. Just to let you know coffee is up there with antioxidants, in fact coffee has a high amount of antioxidant properties which are linked to heart disease and cancer in the sense that coffee helps to prevent these problems. It’s a very controversial subject though, one day you might hear on the news that coffee is bad for you or not a good idea, then the next day you’ll hear that coffee is linked to increase performance, mentally and physically regarding to tasks and that coffee drinking has been strongly linked to lowering the risk of cancers and other diseases such as type 2 diabetes. We know too much of anything is not good but if consumed moderately, even a few times a day, coffee can really have great benefits for your body.

The website I’ve listed,http://www.positivelycoffee.com/, celebrates the benefits of coffee and I will discuss how this can incorporate into your Mediterranean lifestyle. Let’s discuss some of the ways coffee can effect you in your every day life by going through a coupe of the points listed on the website.

• Coffee and Mental Performance: It has been said that coffee helps with short term memory and alertness. With everyone’s busy schedules everyday it’s hard to focus on what’s important but Coffee is said to help focus those that may not be able to focus due to boredom or tiredness that the task may bring.
• Coffee and Antioxidants: It’s actually said that 2-4 cups of coffee per day is not bad for you but boosts more antioxidants into your system which helps therapeutically as well as physically. These antioxidants reduce the risks for heart disease. There are many studies out there that discuss this further.

Listed below is a recipe that I hope you enjoy. It’s a Coffee milkshake per say and quite good might I add. Go ahead and get some coffee into your system, I hope that the benefits encourage you to get some into your system. It doesn’t hurt to be alert and healthy at the same time.

Frullatto al caffe (Coffee ‘frullato’ or milkshake)

Copyright The Basic Art of Italian Cooking,2005-2006, Maria Liberati

For 2

*2 cups of strong espresso coffee

*4 tsps of sugar or sugar substitute

*2 cups of chopped ice

*1 tsp of anisette or amaretto flavoring

*1 cup milk (part skim or skim milk) or for a creamier drink substitute 1 cup of frozen fat free vanilla yogurt

Put all ingredients in a blender and blend for 30 seconds. Serve immediately in two tall chilled glasses.

Foods Breakdown: Spaghetti Amore Mio

Now what we have here this week is a true Mediterranean Dish, even if you’re not up to making the same kind of dishes I’ve listed you can use them as a guide as to something else you may be interested in trying. We already know that one way for us to follow or in order for it to be considered Mediterranean we need a generous amount of vegetables and fruits included into our diet and a regular use of olive oils for cooking or taste. The recipe we have today follows the Mediterranean guide to a tee. Other than the Carbs provided by Spaghetti and the Olives and Olive Oil (that we have broken down previously) lets breakdown the main foods used in this recipe below by telling you its health benefits:

Red Onion: improves blood circulation and releases toxins inside of the body. They also reduce cholesterol and have been said to prevent cancer.

Red Peppers/ Yellow Peppers: Both have a great source of the antioxidant Vitamins A and Vitamins C which also have been said to prevent cancer and helps with cellular damage while helping the immune system.

Cherry Tomatoes: Like we’ve discussed before tomatoes have a good source of Vitamin C and Calcium and also good way of preventing different types of cancer. Like stated previously, tomatoes prevent high cholesterol and heart disease.

Anchovy: offers high Omega 3 fatty acid levels which are nutritionally essential fatty acids. It is a very good to eat fish in general for those trying to prevent heart disease.

Spaghetti Amore Mio

(copyright, 2008 M aria Liberati,The Basic Art of Italian Cooking-Healthy & Light)

1 lb of spaghetti

¼ cup of green pitted olives

2 tblsps of finely sliced red onion

1/2 lb of roasted red peppers

½ lb of roasted yellow peppers

½ lb of cherry tomatoes

3 anchovy filets packed in olive oil

1 handful of Italian parsley finely chopped.

4 tblsps of extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Cut already roasted peppers into strips. Cut olives into thin slices. Wash the tomatoes and cut into small pieces. Peel and chop red onion and cut into thin slices. Place olive oil into large shallow frying pan. Place all the above into the oil and add in the anchovies. Toss in pan all till onions start to become a golden color.

Place in the pieces of tomatoes. Salt and pepper to taste and cook all for another 5 minutes. Add in pepper strips and cook for another 10 minutes over low heat then remove from heat.

Boil spaghetti in lightly salted water. Cook till al dente. Drain and toss in pan with peppers and vegetables. Sprinkle chopped parsley on top and serve.